Rumors about the next-generation Xbox have been circulating for years. The next-generation Xbox, or Xbox 720 as some call it, is expected to launch later this year. There are some indications that Microsoft might unveil the next-generation Xbox ahead of E3 2013. Other rumors have put the price of the next-generation Xbox at around $400.

While most details of the next-generation console remain to be seen, leaked specs have surfaced this week that give some hardware specifications for the processor that will be the brains of the next-generation Xbox. The processor has x64 architecture and eight cores running at 1.6 GHz. Each of those CPU threads has its own 32 kB L1 instruction cache and 32 kB L1 data cache. Each module of the four CPU cores has its own 2 MB L2 cache giving the processor a total of 4 MB of L2 cache.

VGLeaks reports that each core has one fully independent hardware thread and doesn't share execution resources. Each hardware thread is also reportedly able to issue two instructions per clock cycle. The next-generation Xbox GPU is reportedly a custom D3D 11.1 class unit running at 800 MHz with 12 shader cores and 768 total threads.

Each of those threads is reportedly able to perform one scaler multiplication and additional operation per clock. A natural user interface sensor is also always present. That processor is reportedly paired with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM and 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM.

The machine is also paired with a 6x Blu-ray drive, gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and various hardware accelerators for image, video, and audio codecs. The machine is also tipped include a Kinect multichannel echo cancellation hardware chip and cryptography engines for encrypting and decrypting content.

Yeah, 'cause y'know, eight core processors have been out for ages! Heck, I had 8GB of ram on my 486! -_-

Face it, consoles will always be behind the curve... because they don't need to be ahead. Yes, we PC gamers suffer for it. I just hope my son doesn't grow up to be a console junkie, even though it seems like I get more game on my Xbox & Wii these days (playing MP games with my woman)...

I switched mostly to consoles after getting an Xbox 360 in 2007 and really haven't looked back. I like playing games kicking back on the couch with a 50 inch TV. That's saying something when back in the day I frequently went to, and hosted, LAN parties and had three PCs in my home for friends to come over and play on.

Yes, the Xbox 360 games are not as high-res but I have just as much fun for a fraction of the total cost year over year.

A big plus is I can keep my library of game discs and play them in later years whenever I want, or sell them. Over the years I've had way too many PC games that were obsoleted by a new OS, video card, etc. In 2007, I sold my Sega Saturn + games for $500. Every game worked. I can't say that with any of my old PCs or PC games.

I hadn't played PC games for YEARS (like a decade) except for a select few. I just got back into them recently after I saw the Christmas sales on Steam were cheaper than buying used Xbox games buy two get one free on Gamestop for A++ titles. That plus the humblebundle deals, I must have bought like 30 A++ titles from the past 5-6 years for around $50. I couldn't believe it. Couple that with the fact that my PC is 3.5 years old and plays nearly everything at max settings at 1920x1200 smoothly, most games run perfectly with the Xbox 360 controller, and nearly everything on Xbox/PS3 is available on Steam for far cheaper, and the PC exclusives like StarCraft 2, and I'm a total PC convert overnight. Kudos to Steam for bringing PC gaming back to life.

Not sure what you mean by "nearly everything on Xbox/PS3 is available on Steam"? Nothing from console exclusives is available on PC, and exclusives are among the best games (if not the best games) consoles have.

That is the reason I am doing both PC and console. My only regret is I haven't got enough time to do both consoles and a PC, so for this round I have selected PS3, but I might go X next turn.

My PC is being kept upgraded or replaced to gaming readiness all the time, but even the highest end PC cannot help when great titles and franchises like Halo and beyond, Resistance, Killzone, Gears, Forza, Gran Turismo, Uncharted, God of War, Fable - just to mention a few - are not and likely will never be ported to PC...

For me, this is not about a contest which platform has better graphics, more gigawhatever, stronger mojo. It is simply about enjoying experience all those great games can provide.

quote: Not sure what you mean by "nearly everything on Xbox/PS3 is available on Steam"?

Exactly what I said. Exclusives make up only a tiny portion of games published on each console. Just about anything that is available on both PS3 and X360 is also available on PC. Yes, you miss out on most first party titles (all of Sony's, and some of MS's), but those are not the only reason to buy consoles.

quote: but even the highest end PC cannot help when great titles and franchises like Halo and beyond, Resistance, Killzone, Gears, Forza, Gran Turismo, Uncharted, God of War, Fable - just to mention a few - are not and likely will never be ported to PC...

Fable 1 and 3 are available on PC, not sure why 2 is not. Yes, not having a PC and several consoles you do miss out on those you listed, as well as Gears of War, Little Big Planet, and ALL of Nintendo's titles.

Using Gamerankings.com to sort games on each platform by rating, you will find 8/10 of the top Xbox 360 games are available on PC and 7/10 of the top PS3 games are available on PC. That would qualify as "most".

If by an afterthought, you mean that it was a port, then possibly. But they generally do a very good job porting them, and you usually get a few perks like higher res textures. Look at the reviews on Gamespot.com. They generally give a run down of the differences between the PC and the console versions at the end of the review. If they left out features or made a buggy port, they usually make note. There are only a few AAA titles in recent years I can remember that got lower scores on the PC, Rage being one of them for having bugs galore. Now I won't argue with you that the game are designed with the console's relatively limited capabilities in mind otherwise, but I don't really mind that since I know I'm buying a console-style game.

If you were talking 6+ years ago, I'd agree with you, but after having been out of PC gaming for so long, I was quite pleasantly surprised with how far things have come.

Forgot about that. Its unfortunate they didn't keep it up and just basically gave up on porting Xbox titles to the PC even if they were a year or so old by the time they got around to it. Halo 1 and 2 are also available on PC.

This is really relative. I'd say exclusives I've been playing on my PS3 are around 50% of games I've been playing in general. It just happens I'm not RTS gamer, and not much MMO either. PC has good selection of FPSs, not bad with 3rd person (but not too good either, with Red Dead, God of War etc. missing)... but lacks in platformers (Ratchet & Clank and likes), driving games,... so for me personally, missing on exclusives is a big deal.

But I can see that someone leaning towards RTS, RPG, MMO can slide around consoles without much remorse.

Eh, I am playing my PC games "kicking back on the couch" too... oh well, with only a 46 inch TV. But still with the wireless XBox controller, and with better graphics settings than the XBox games have.

And your 'fraction of the total cost' comment is just making me feel sad about your math skills. The PC versions of games usually cost 2-3 times less than XBox versions, on release day. And when games gets older and into the bargain bins, PC versions are almost free, while I don't see that happening with console versions so much. Then there's user-created content, modding, save game trading, and so on. So much more versatility on the PC.

And absolutely every PC game that I ever had still works on my newest Win7 machine, and I have no doubts it will on Win8 and forward. Compatibility mode has seen a lot of improvement over the years and you can tell MS really did care to make most everything keep running... Game devs also try to patch the games for newer versions, and even the user community can sometimes hack up a patch for games that the devs abandoned. This is completely impossible on consoles.The move to 64-bit Windows dropped support for 16-bit apps, but still runs most 32-bit apps fine. You can run a win98 instance under Dosbox for your 16-bit windows games, and DOS games. And as a last resort, there is always VirtualBox, although honestly I do not have a game that needs that.All this means that even things that I played on my very first 286 can still work on my newest PC. At the same time, you can not run your old games on your new console. Having to keep your old console is a drawback, not a plus in this regard.

For the record, I do also have a Xbox 360, and I do enjoy it. But it is a fact that if something is not exclusive for it, it is usually better on the PC.

Was just doing an autopsy on my roommate's grandma's computer the other day when I discovered that the 4GiB thumbdrive we bought her to transfer her pictures and cookbook from her old compputer was actually the same size as the hard drive!

But I really got a laugh when I looked at the system properties to see how much ram it had and noticed it said 6x6 " Cyrix Instead " for the processor instead of "Intel Inside". Hadn't seen one of those in years.